BHF Donation Boosts Poole Hospital's Facilities For Life-Saving Cardiology Tests
L-R: Sue Whitehead, Cardiac Physiologist; Kim Greaves, Consultant Cardiologist; Peter Harvey, Chairman; Kevin Green, Lead Cardiac Physiologist; Zoe Nicholson, Fundraising Volunteer Manager, British Heart Foundation
A new state-of-the-art echocardiograph machine was donated to Poole Hospital by the British Heart Foundation on Monday 22 March.
The portable ‘echo’ will boost Poole Hospital’s capacity to provide crucial cardiology tests, meaning shorter waits for patients needing scans, as well as improved diagnostic accuracy thanks to the high quality images it produces.
The donation of the new machine was made possible thanks to some fantastic support from the local community, who took part in a range of fundraising activities for the BHF Hearts of Poole campaign. A total of £38,000 was raised through various activities including a Santa Jog in December and a sports evening. Some fundraisers took on their own challenges, testing their fitness and determination – all helping to reach the target amount.
The new portable machine will mean patients benefit from the latest technology at their bedside, enabling doctors to make an in-depth clinical evaluation of their cardiac function.
Poole Hospital’s expanding cardiology facilities mean it can now offer patients all four key types of non-invasive tests to assess the heart: CT coronary angiography, stress echocardiography, cardiac MRI and myocardial perfusion scintigraphy. Patients can then be referred for further investigation if required, but sophisticated technology such as this means fewer people have to undergo invasive testing for potential heart conditions. The Hospital also recently recruited a second specialist in non-invasive cardiology, further enhancing its capacity to help patients with heart problems.
Professor Kim Greaves, Consultant Cardiologist at Poole Hospital said: “We are extremely grateful to the British Heart Foundation for supplying the new echocardiograph machine, and to the local community for getting behind their fundraising campaign. The new machine is state of the art, and will make a huge difference to patients and staff at Poole Hospital.
“The increased scope of non-invasive cardiology tests at Poole compliments cardiology services available elsewhere in our region. We are one of a highly select number of general hospitals able to offer this wide range of state-of-the-artdiagnostic techniques, giving our cardiology patients faster access to highly focused and comprehensive investigation of their heart conditions.”
Zoe Nicholson, Fundraising Volunteer Manager for the BHF said: “We are delighted that this life-saving equipment will now be used to help local heart patients. The effort put into fundraising has been amazing and I would like to thank everyone who raised or donated money to the appeal. We are extremely grateful and proud to have reached our target amount.”
Date: 24 March 2010